The Highlander's Outlaw Bride

by MacRae, Cathy

  Watching his face, she decided he was teasing as much as he was serious. “I was told the pup had a mind of his own, so I cannae promise, but I will keep it in mind. Besides, ye woke him.”

  “Ye dinnae plan on him sleeping with ye once we are wed?”

  “I plan to train him to deal with recalcitrant cattle and other such things as vex me.” She raised an eyebrow. “Surely that willnae include ye?” She nudged Maude forward, Tam trotting in her wake. “He is the warmest, least demanding thing in my bed right now.” Brianna glanced over her shoulder. Conn stared after her, one hand on his hip. “Will ye be walking, then?” she asked him. The other men rode past with scarcely a nod. Conn flashed her a grin.

  “I dinnae plan to be ousted by a pup!” He swung easily onto his stallion’s back. Embarr tossed his head, eager to follow the mare as she swished her tail and stomped a rear foot at a pesky fly.

  Brianna was surprised when he settled in to ride beside her. The soldiers formed their lines ahead and behind them, leaving space for them to travel in relative privacy. They rode in silence and Brianna soon changed her attention to Tam, who gamboled happily beside Maude. Lean and young, he was full of boundless energy.

  They halted for a midday meal on the crest of a low mountain. Brianna sat on a large rock overlooking the valley as she munched a piece of dried meat. Dangling her feet in the air, she turned her face into the rush of wind, relishing the updraft as it lifted the hair on either side of her face. The scent of new green growth rose from the valley below. Tam begged a bite of her food. Conn moved to stand behind her.

  “Are ye anxious to get home?”

  Curbing her resentment at being disturbed, she surrendered the last bite of her meal to the pup and leaned back, hands splayed behind her. “Aye. Though I know Auld Willie is taking care of Wyndham and Jamie, I worry about them.”

  “Ye dinnae like this roaming existence, then? Ye are ready to put yer traveling days behind ye?”

  She tilted her head back and looked up at him. “Aye. I want a hot bath, a soft bed, and a meal without oatcakes.”

  Conn roared with laughter. “Then we shall get ye home. One more night in the wilds and ye will be at Wyndham.”

  Brianna bit her lip. “For two weeks. I have only two weeks to get Wyndham in order.”

  “Dinnae fash. I promise I will help ye see things settled. I know how much it means to ye and it serves no purpose to have my wife anxious and brooding.”

  She could think of no pleasant response other than ‘thank ye’, and she was not yet ready to thank him for anything. He had a marital obligation to align himself with Wyndham. He did not have to offer assistance in governing the clan, and no one would show surprise if he took Wyndham land as his own if the leadership fell in contention. She would no longer be there to fill in during her da’s lapses, and a sickly five-year-old lad would not be anyone’s choice for the lordship should anything happen to her da. She’d fought to save Wyndham for Jamie and still resented the fact that the right to do so was being taken from her.

  He offered her a hand and hauled her to her feet. Brianna took a step away. “Thank ye for not pushing us hard this trip. It is good to hear the men laughing and singing and relaxed in the saddle. ’Twas a wild ride from Glenkirk those weeks ago when we fled the sheriff. I dinnae like to remember those days.”

  Conn’s face lit with a teasing grin. “I wanted to give us time together. I am glad ye approve.”

  “I dinnae say I approved our time together, but I suppose I should get to know ye better.”

  “Ye speak aright, however grudgingly. Hoist yerself onto yer mare and we will be on our way.”

  They checked their horses’ girths and mounted, again riding side by side. As they talked, they rode slower, allowing their horses to amble along the trail as the rest of the group traveled ahead to set camp for the night.

  “Ye seem to have enjoyed yer time in France,” Brianna ventured.

  Conn nodded. “Aye. After I saw the mare my friend brought back with him, I decided our stable needed Iberian blood. And I wanted time to rethink my life.”

  “This is the farthest I have been from Wyndham,” she admitted.

  “I wouldnae lightly turn over the responsibility of being laird in order to take such a trip again. Learning all that has happened in my absence doesnae set well with me.”

  Brianna nodded her understanding. “Why did ye not return home when yer father died?”

  Conn rode in silence a moment, then reined Embarr to a stop. Brianna pulled Maude in beside him.

  “Word dinnae reach me until several weeks had passed. My sister’s missive finally found me, but the journey back took too long. Malcolm used the time to his advantage.”

  “I dinnae mean to pry, but after yer father died, all the help from Morven was taken away from us.”

  “I am sorry, Brianna. I had no idea of any of this. My da had always been strong and fully in charge. There was no reason to think he would die so suddenly. As for our betrothal, I dinnae know about it, either. I wanted to choose my own wife.”

  Brianna frowned at the challenging look on his face and refused to rise to his bait. Talking about their lives seemed harmless enough. She did not wish to return to the issue of their marriage. She offered no comment.

  Conn kicked Embarr back to a walk, and Maude snatched another mouthful of grass before lurching forward to join him.

  “Tell me about Jamie,” he said, startling her with the change in topic.

  “Jamie? He is everything a five-year-old boy should be. At least most of the time. His birth was early and he sickens easily.” She smiled fondly. “He snuck out one night and followed us when we were after cattle.” Chuckling, she shook her head at the memory. “He got more than he bargained for when he had to sit on his fat pony for an hour or so while Gavin waited with him for us to return. He was cold, exhausted, and heartily tired of being shushed by the time we got back.

  “He loves bedtime stories and is full of mischief. And he calls me Anna. I cannae believe I miss the wee limmer!”

  They reined their horses to the sheltered area the men had chosen for their camp, and dismounted at the picket line. Maude acted frisky after the long but boring day, and nipped at Brianna’s skirts as she moved about, brushing the dust from her dappled coat and setting out the last of the grain for her supper.

  “Yer mare is more of a menace than my stallion,” Conn commented as Brianna stepped nimbly out of Maude’s reach.

  Brianna gave a grim laugh. “Aye. She is usually like this when…” She bit her lip, embarrassment heating her cheeks. Her mare played the wanton, openly inviting Conn’s stallion to approach her. Brianna was not sure she wished to continue a discussion of her mare’s mating habits.

  “She is built a lot like my stallion. Sturdy, yet light-boned. When ye are ready, I think a foal sired on her by Embarr would be a good choice.”

  Conn grabbed his saddle and set it with the others, out of the path of the horse’s hooves, and motioned for Brianna to walk with him to the camp. Before they reached the sight of the others, he caught her hand and turned her to him. At arm’s length she stopped, watching him warily, but without the open hostility of before.

  “Walk with me after dinner?” He drew her closer, inch by inch, until they stood a mere hand’s breadth apart.

  “Ye ask a lot of me, m’laird.” Her voice conveyed her uneasiness.

  “Say my name.”

  “Connor.”

  “That dinnae foul yer tongue, aye?”

  “Be serious.”

  “I seriously want to walk with ye after dinner. I promise ye will be safe with me.”

  Brianna lifted an eyebrow skeptically. As much as she distrusted him, as much as she resented being treated like chattel and married at a man’s whim, she could not deny the warmth flowing through her from their clasped hands. Talking with him had done unlooked-for things to her this day. The thought of being alone with him had changed from an ideal opportunity to murder h
im without a witness, to the possibility of experiencing a kiss and possibly something more in his arms.

  “Are ye certain about that?” she teased.

  Conn lifted her hand and touched his lips to her fingers. His tongue traced the ridges of her knuckles. Brianna gasped and tried to snatch her hand away, burning with the desire to slap him with her other one.

  He gave her a devilish grin as he placed her captive hand over his heart. “I willnae do anything ye dinnae wish me to.”

  The look on his face told her he would see to it she wanted. And desired. And wanted more. She chewed her bottom lip.

  “Mayhap—”

  Her words were cut off as Conn snatched her bodily to him and flung them both to the ground. Her breath left her in a sharp whoosh as she landed hard, gasping as she struggled against the large male body pressing down on her. The air rang with the cries of startled men, the shrill whinnies of frightened horses, and the whistling sounds of arrows.

  “We are under attack!” Conn rolled to the side, still using his body to shield her. A bolt thudded shaft-deep in the tree trunk next to them.

  “Are ye hurt?”

  Brianna shook her head. “Nae. I was winded, not hurt.”

  “Better than taking an arrow.”

  With a nod of agreement, she scrambled to her feet.

  The fading sunlight glinted off flashing steel blades, and more arrows sang through the trees, seeking targets. A Douglas soldier collapsed beneath a determined assault, and Conn decided he’d seen enough. He dragged Brianna to her feet. “Do ye need yer saddle?”

  “Nae.” Her head snapped back as he towed her behind him to the picket line, interrupting a black-clad man slicing through the horses’ lead ropes as fast as he could. From their left, Gavin crashed between them, Gillis hard on his heels. With a mighty swing, Gavin’s sword dealt the strange man a killing blow, and Brianna pulled up with a gasp.

  “Get the horses!” Gavin shoved Gillis, who snatched the dangling leads.

  “Get her out of here!” Conn shouted above the clamor.

  “Nae!” Brianna cried.

  Both men looked at her as though she’d grown an extra head.

  “I can fight.” She jerked from Conn’s grasp.

  With a snarl, he grabbed her and tossed her onto Maude’s back. He whirled to Gavin. “Take her home!”

  With a nod of understanding, Gavin grabbed his horse’s leading rein from Gillis and flung himself astride his mount.

  “Nae!” Brianna leaned across Maude’s withers and prepared to dismount. Conn put a restraining hand on her arm.

  “I will come for ye. See to Jamie and Wyndham.” He caught and held her furious gaze, but at last she nodded and gathered her reins.

  He turned to Gavin. “Keep her safe. If these are Malcolm’s men, I will find out soon enough. If this is about her, ye may have trouble when ye reach Wyndham. Take as many Douglases with ye as ye can, but leave now!”

  A chilling war cry ripped from his lips as Gavin summoned the Douglases to his side, and within moments, he and two others sped away into the darkness, riding so close to Brianna’s gray mare that she instantly vanished from Conn’s sight.

  He turned back to the camp where the fight continued in earnest. Bray parried with his short sword against a claymore, and Conn leaped immediately into the fray. A moment later, the man lay dead at their feet. Bray wiped his forehead.

  “Sacre Dieu! I may need one of those long swords for myself. What do you call them?”

  “Claymores!” Conn cried, the heat of battle overtaking him as he turned to avoid the thrust of another sword. Bray brought the hilt of his sword down hard on the head of a man who overstepped his attack. The man crumpled into a heap of pleated wool and chain mail.

  Conn grunted, dispatching another black-clad man, pausing to yank his blade from the dying body. He took a deep breath and looked around the glen, rubbing the sweat and hair from his eyes. To his surprise, the attacking forces faded into the forest, the remaining Douglases close on their heels.

  “Hold!”

  Uncertain, the Douglases let the enemy go. Conn took stock of the situation, and though most of the men sported an injury of some sort, only one of the Douglas men lay dead, and the injuries of the rest did not appear life-threatening. He bent over one body and rifled through the loose edges of his clothing, searching for a clue to his identity. He found nothing.

  He picked up the discarded sword, wiping the blade on its owner’s leine, and eyed it carefully in the failing light. The pitted metal was of poor quality, and he saw no identifying marks on the blade. With a snort of disgust, he cast the sword aside.

  Gillis stood silently, holding the reins of six horses pawing nervously at the ground, responding to the cries and smell of blood with tossing heads and shrill whinnies. Gillis’s eyes fixed, not on his charges, but on the lifeless body lying to one side of the smoldering fire.

  Ewan and William sheathed their swords and approached Geordie, who would never ride with them again. They solemnly unwound his plaide and spread it on the ground. Placing his body upon the cloth, they wrapped him securely. With grim faces, Bray and Conn added their hands to the task.

  Gillis saddled Geordie’s horse and led it to the somber group. Ewan and William lifted the lad’s body and placed it gently across the horse’s back. Bray and Conn lashed the bundle securely to the saddle.

  “Bray, Gillis and I must ride hard to Morven,” Conn told William. “Can ye and Ewan take Geordie home?”

  “Aye,” William replied. “We will take care of the lad.”

  “Good. Send word if things are amiss at Wyndham. Morven is less than a day’s ride away.” He clasped William’s shoulder, forcing the sorrowing man to look at him, taking his attention away from his dead friend. “Protect Lady Brianna, even with yer life.”

  William lifted his chin. “’Tis always been our way.”

  Conn nodded. “I meant no insult. I dinnae need to remind ye of yer sworn duty. I mean to return for her, and she is in danger until we find who set ye up for reiving.”

  “Aye.” William jerked his head at Ewan and they grabbed their saddles from the ground. It took them only a moment to saddle their horses and begin their journey home.

  Hands flew as they hurriedly saddled the remaining horses, tying the broodmares with their leads. Bray’s horse tossed his head and pawed the ground, eager to be about his business. Embarr pranced about as well, unused to the sounds and smells of battle. Gillis’s horse was a good, solid sort, his only difficulty keeping up with the furious pace Bray and Conn set as they headed at a hard gallop toward Morven.

  Chapter 15

  Brianna and her soldiers raced at breakneck speed to Wyndham, darkness scarcely slowing their headlong pace. The events of the past hours blunted her senses. She didn’t want to think about the battle she’d just witnessed, didn’t want to wonder how many soldiers would come home bound to the backs of their horses. For all the months in light skirmishes with reivers, this had been her first involvement in a true battle. It left her humbled. And hollow.

  She gritted her teeth, so tired she could barely hold herself on Maude’s sweated back. Tears, whipped from her eyes by the wind, streaked cold across her cheeks. Still they pressed on.

  At last the massive stone hulk of Wyndham Hall loomed through the early morning mist, and Brianna thought she’d never seen anything so beautiful. Home lay at last within reach—her family, everything she loved. Her memory jolted to remember what short time remained to be with them, but she pushed it aside. There would be time later to think about Conn and the life the king had decreed for her.

  Shouts rang out from the guards and men scrambled to attention, peering at the ragged group as Brianna and her men rode to the stout double doors of the manor. Maude stumbled to a halt, sides heaving, head low. Brianna slid from the mare’s back and dropped her reins, ground-tying the exhausted mare where she stood. Sore in every inch of her body, her legs numb from the hard ride, Brianna limped
to the thick wooden doors and beat on them with a trembling fist. It was too early in the morning for the heavy bar to have been removed, and she waited impatiently for the steward to respond to the guards’ alert and admit her into the hall.

  Gavin followed her inside, leaving the others to see to the horses, the mud and sweat cleaned from their coats, their bellies fed. Though it was early, Jamie was already up and nagging his nurse, Una. Brianna heard his shrill voice trailing down the hall, her heart swelling at the sound. Jamie tripped into the main hall and stopped short, surprised to see visitors. His face lit when he recognized Brianna, and he darted across the hall, shouting as he ran.

  “Anna! Anna! Ye are home!” He flung himself into her arms, nearly knocking her on her arse with the force of his welcome. She grabbed him to her, hugging him so tight he began to complain.

  “Ow! Ye are hurting me!” He struggled against her grasp.

  “Jamie! I have missed ye so much!” Tears blurred her eyes as she held him close, breathing in his familiar scent, his small body fitting her arms so differently than it had little more than a month ago.

  Jamie wiggled from her arms and held himself up, stretching as tall as he possibly could. “I have grown, Anna. See?” He craned his neck, showing her how much taller he was. Before Brianna could remark on his height, he planted his fists on his hips and glared at her.

  “Ye left me!”

  Nonplussed, Brianna stared at the child and blinked in bewilderment, too tired to think properly, amused at the fierce scowl on Jamie’s face.

  Jamie stomped his foot. “Auld Willie said ye left me.”

  Brianna drew back in disbelief. Surely her uncle wouldn’t have said such a thing to the child. Just then, the old man stepped forward and laid a hand on Jamie’s shoulder.

  “Wheesht, lad. Dinnae fash yer sister so. She has had a hard night of it, so it seems.”

  Brianna wanted to ask him what he had actually told Jamie, why Jamie thought she’d left him on purpose. But she was too happy to be home and amid her family to question him now. She gave her uncle a weary smile. “I am glad to be home. I must speak with ye, then I would like a short nap so I can think straight again.”